How long a sermon, how long a prayer?

Read: Luke 10:25-37

 

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost - July 29, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

 

How long should a sermon be?

How extensive should a prayer be?

Those are difficult questions, and the answers vary wildly according to the circumstances.

A smart answer is to say: long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting.

But the smart answer is not an adequate one, for when is a subject fully covered in a sermon? And to whom does a prayer need to be interesting?

You see the corner into which we paint ourselves?

 

So we look first to the example of Jesus for sermons and prayers, and what do we find there?

We would be hoping for a neat package, with sermons that simply affirm us as being basically good people, who need only fine-tune things a bit with a modest prayer request now and again, all tied together with a bow that says...”and they all lived happily ever after.”

 

But Jesus' sermons and prayer do not work like that, at all!

He uses those pithy stories, the parables, those open-ended stories where we never hear “...and they all lived happily ever after.”

Rather, we are left with a multitude of questions.

For one example,from the Good Samaritan story 2 weeks ago, we might ask:

--did the Samaritan actually come back?

--did the patient recover?

--did the innkeeper accept the payment plan, or kill the injured man and keep the money?

--was the patient thankful or resentful of the assistance received?

--what nationality was the patient, anyway?

--did the priest and Levite eventually feel guilty about the situation?

--what did the lawyer who asked the question actually do next, after the conversation with Jesus?

--what did the onlookers around Jesus say or do because of having heard this story?

There is so much that we do not know, and we can come up with a similar raft of questions about every other one of the stories which Jesus tells.

They are not neat and tidy answers for every possible outcome.

They do, however, prompt us to keep asking the questions, to continue the conversation with God and each other...and perhaps that is the overarching point!

Sometimes we don't want to prematurely cut off thought on  a subject, because in a sermon, the subject is the living God.

We dare not end the subject because the subject of the sermon (God) himself doesn't stop talking!

Despite our waywardness and infidelities, God continues to love us, keeps on speaking to us, and maintains his search and embrace of us;

God continues to be with us.

We know how the TV shows draw it out.

There is a dangerous situation: the floor creaks, the background music swells, we see the hand slowly reaching for the doorknob...and as the door is opened a crack...they cut away to a commercial about mascara or yoghurt.

So, we have to wait a bit and then the story will resume.

 

And that is the way it is with sermons. We only get one little part of the story on a given Sunday or weekday morning.

We listen to and ponder over that little bit, and need to return next time for more.

And meanwhile, we raise our questions and objections, and we undertake our service and obedience to Christ's commands.

Oh, yes, that too is part of the sermon; it isn't over until God's Word for us which the sermon contains is digested and becomes operational in our lives.

That may be immediately, or implementation may be delayed until sometime mid-week in our lives.

 

All that we have been describing about the sermon is a portion of the life of prayer.

If prayer is conversation with God, we might regard the sermon as part of God's side of that conversation.

And Jesus gives us a sample of what a portion of our side can be like.

We really ought to pay attention to the model, in contrast to our more common ways of prayer.

It is easy for us to get stuck in a rut, and make the major or perhaps the only subject in our prayers the health of persons, especially in our own congregation.

Do we hear any mention of health needs at all in the Lord's Prayer, other than as one thing among many included in “daily bread?”

Our part of the conversation should not start with our wants, nor even our needs, and certainly not with our whines, but with our praise: “hallowed be your Name....”

Let it always be clear among us that our prayers should begin with thanks-giving like this, because his first word to us is grace: grace to you and peace from him who was, who is and who is to come,... and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness and the first-born of the dead, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. [Revelation 1:4-6]

Last Sunday in our DVD in the forum, Dr. Nestingen related an incident in which an elderly woman was suffering a fatal heart attack.

They knew it was not to be a time for ambulances and interventions, but for prayers.

As the pastor arrived, her spouse of many decades was holding her gently and had begun praying, “Thank you, Lord, thank you for all these years together. Thank you for what we've been able to say and do together. Thank you for love and family, thank you Lord, thank you.”

There are certainly other petitions as well, matters of sorrow and grief and loneliness, but this is always where  our prayers are to begin...in thanks-giving.  Hallowed be your Name.

 

We are such compulsively driven people: Come here, go there, faster, shorter.

It becomes such a problem for matters of the faith, and especially for prayer.

We just cannot handle silence very well at all.

Even in the Prayer of the Church, I write in for the Assisting Minister to count to 10 to allow a space for anyone to verbally or silently add names or situations to the prayer.

Sometimes they do a speed-count, it seems.

We are not comfortable with silence, even in prayer.

We should not think of silence as dead-time, but as possibility-time, when God may be opening us up to something new and good and true.

We are not simply cast adrift to think any stray thoughts that float in.

Rather, God's Word is always at our side ready to inspire our silence, and direct its content.

In the silence before the service, or during the offering, or during the sharing of the communion meal,

--review one or more of the Lessons,

--read a hymn text that we sing, or the hymn suggested on p. 2 of the  bulletin,

--read the Psalm of the day and discern how it is a prayer that blends praise and petition,

--discern how the Psalm of the Day reflects one of the themes in the First Lesson

--on the basis of the lessons, begin to frame your own first petition for the Prayer of the Church,

--and then, perhaps, frame other petitions.

With all of that preparatory work, most likely our prayers will not then be limited to our health concerns, but instead will be wide-ranging, much more comprehensive, and not just about ourselves.

 

Many will say that they do not have time for prayer, that they are too busy.

That is correct; we have made ourselves too busy.

Use the suggestions that we have printed in the bulletin each week for that past dozen years, or gather in the chapel weekday mornings at 9 AM, or make up your own time and materials, but start somewhere.

 

Francis de Sales was Bishop of Geneva in the 17^th century.

He said that anyone attempting to live a godly life must spend at least thirty minutes a day in complete silence before the face of God unless that person is doing very, very important work.

In that case, the person should spend at least two hours a day in silence before the face of God.

Luther, a century before him, said much the same thing.

Are we any more wise or clever than they?

 

And Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

“When you pray, say 'Father, hallowed be your name....'”

“...The heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

 

With joy and confidence, let all of us be engaged in this life of prayer, and conclude: Amen.